Editing Mystery play

{{Short description|Medieval European play}}
{{About|a medieval theatrical genre|the graphic novella|The Mystery Play|theatrical works focusing on crime|:Category:Detective, mystery and crime plays}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2015}}
[[File:Mystery Play Metz.jpg|thumb|Depiction of a performance of the Mystery Play of [[Clement of Metz|Saint Clement]] in [[Metz]] during the Middle Ages.]]

'''Mystery plays''' and '''miracle plays''' (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably<ref>'Properly speaking, Mysteries deal with Gospel events only). Miracle Plays, on the other hand, are concerned with incidents derived from the legends of the saints of the Church.' {{cite book|last=Ward|first=Augustus William|title=History of English dramatic literature|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryenglish03wardgoog|publisher=Macmillan|location=London, England|year=1875 }}</ref>) are among the earliest formally developed [[Play (theatre)|plays]] in [[medieval Europe]]. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of [[Bible]] stories in [[Church (building)|churches]] as [[tableau vivant|tableaux]] with accompanying [[antiphon]]al song. They told of subjects such as the Creation, [[Adam and Eve]], the murder of Abel, and the [[Last Judgment]].<ref>"Vernacular Drama | Medieval Drama." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 27 May 2013. Web. 7 February 2015.</ref> Often they were performed together in cycles which could last for days.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theatrefolk.com/spotlights/72/download |title=Emergency Lesson Plan Medieval Theatre: Mystery, Miracle, Morality |access-date=8 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150208054447/https://www.theatrefolk.com/spotlights/72/download |archive-date=8 February 2015 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> The name derives from ''[[Sacred Mysteries|mystery]]'' used in its sense of ''[[miracle]],''<ref>{{cite book|title=[[Oxford English Dictionary]]|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|date=December 2009|chapter=mystery, n<sup>1</sup> 9}}</ref> but an occasionally quoted derivation is from ''ministerium'', meaning ''[[craft]]'', and so the 'mysteries' or plays performed by the [[craft guilds]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Gassner|first=John|author2=Quinn, Edward|title=The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama|publisher=Methuen|location=London|year=1969|pages=203–204|chapter=England: middle ages|oclc=249158675}}</ref>

==Origins==
[[File:Mystery play 001.jpg|thumb|Mystery play, [[Flanders]], 15th century]]
As early as the fifth century, living tableaux were introduced into sacred services.<ref name=bellinger>[http://www.theatrehistory.com/medieval/bellinger001.html Bellinger, Martha Fletcher, "A Thousand Years Of Quiescence And The Beginnings Of Sacred Drama", ''A Short History of the Drama'', New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1927. pp. 115-21]</ref> The plays originated as simple ''tropes'', verbal embellishments of liturgical texts, and slowly became more elaborate. At an early period chants from the service of the day were added to the prose dialogue. As these liturgical plays increased in popularity, vernacular forms emerged, and travelling companies of actors and theatrical productions became common in the later Middle Ages.

The ''[[Quem quaeritis?]]'' is the best known early form of the dramas. It is a schematic dialogue between the angel at the tomb of Christ and the women who are seeking his dead body.<ref name=bellinger/> Early forms of the responsorium were later elaborated with dialogue and dramatic action. Early performances were given in Latin, and were preceded by a vernacular prologue spoken by a herald who gave a synopsis of the events. The writers and directors of the earliest plays were probably monks or clerics.

In 1210, suspicious of the growing popularity of miracle plays, [[Pope Innocent III]] issued a [[Papal bull|papal edict]] forbidding clergy from acting on a public stage. This had the effect of transferring the organization of the dramas to town guilds, after which several changes followed. Vernacular texts replaced Latin, and non-Biblical passages were added along with comic scenes, for example in the ''[[The Second Shepherds' Play|Secunda Pastorum]]'' of the [[Wakefield Cycle]]. Acting and characterization became more elaborate.

These vernacular religious performances were, in some of the larger cities in England such as [[York]], performed and produced by [[guild]]s, with each guild taking responsibility for a particular piece of scriptural history. From the guild control originated the term mystery play or mysteries, from the Latin ''ministerium'' meaning "occupation" (i.e. that of the guilds). The genre was again banned as a result of the [[English Reformation|Reformation]] and the establishment of the [[Church of England]] in 1534.

The mystery play developed, in some places, into a series of plays dealing with major events in the Christian calendar, from the Creation to the Day of Judgment. By the end of the 15th century, the practice of acting these plays in cycles on festival days was established in several parts of Europe. Sometimes, each play was performed on a decorated pageant cart that moved about the city to allow different crowds to watch each play.<ref>"Mystery Play | Dramatic Genre." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 27 May 2013. Web. 6 February 2015.</ref> The entire cycle could take up to twenty hours to perform and could be spread over a number of days. Taken as a whole, these are referred to as ''Corpus Christi cycles''. These cycles were often performed during the [[Feast of Corpus Christi]].<ref>Windeatt, Barry. "Medieval Imaginations: Literature & Visual Culture in the Middle Ages." Medieval Imaginations: Literature & Visual Culture in the Middle Ages. University of Cambridge, n.d. Web. 7 February 2015.</ref>

The plays were performed by a combination of clerics and amateurs and were written in highly elaborate stanza forms; they were often marked by extravagant sets and special effects, but could also be stark and intimate. There was a wide variety of theatrical and poetic styles, even in a single cycle of plays.

==English mystery plays==
[[File:04b266 adamandeve.jpg|thumb|Two Players of St. Peter portraying [[Adam and Eve]]]]
There are four complete or nearly complete extant English biblical collections of plays.<ref>Windeatt, Barry. "Medieval Imaginations: Literature & Visual Culture in the Middle Ages." Medieval Imaginations: Literature & Visual Culture in the Middle Ages. University of Cambridge, n.d. Web. 7 February 2015. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110111182223/http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/medieval/mystery_plays.php]</ref> A collection is the ''[[York Mystery Plays|York cycle]]'' of forty-eight pageants; there are also the ''[[Wakefield Cycle|Towneley plays]]'' of thirty-two pageants; the [[N-Town Plays|Ludus Coventriae]]; and the ''[[Chester Mystery Plays|Chester cycle]]'' of twenty-four pageants, now generally agreed to be an Elizabethan reconstruction of older medieval traditions. Also extant are two pageants from a New Testament [[Coventry Mystery Plays|cycle acted at Coventry]]. Additionally, a fifteenth-century play of the life of [[Mary Magdalene]], ''[[The Brome Abraham and Isaac]]'' and a sixteenth-century play of the ''Conversion of [[Paul of Tarsus|Saint Paul]]'' exist. Besides the [[Middle English]] drama, there are a few surviving plays in [[Cornish language|Cornish]]: namely, the [[Ordinalia]] (which is a cycle of three plays) and [[Pascon agan Arluth|Pascon Agan Aruth]] which both tell biblical stories, and [[Bewnans Ke]] and [[Beunans Meriasek|Bewnans Meriasek]], which tell the stories of the lives of saints.

These biblical plays differ widely in content. Most contain episodes such as the ''Fall of Lucifer'', the ''Creation and Fall of Man'', ''Cain and Abel'', ''Noah and the Flood'', ''Abraham and Isaac'', the ''Nativity'', the ''Raising of Lazarus'', the ''Passion'', and the ''Resurrection''. Other pageants included the story of ''Moses'', the ''Procession of the Prophets'', ''Christ's Baptism'', the ''Temptation in the Wilderness'', and the ''Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin''. In given cycles, the plays came to be sponsored by the newly emerging Medieval [[craft guild]]s. The York [[mercery|mercers]], for example, sponsored the ''Doomsday'' pageant. Other guilds presented scenes appropriate to their trade: the building of the [[Noah's Ark|Ark]] from the carpenters' guild; the [[Feeding the multitude|five loaves and fishes]] miracle from the bakers; and the [[visit of the Magi]], with their offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh, from the goldsmiths.<ref>{{cite book|last=Oxenford|first=Lyn|title=Playing Period Plays |year=1958|publisher=Coach House Press|location=Chicago, Illinois|isbn=0853435499|page=3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Mikics|first=David |title=A New Handbook of Literary Terms |url=https://archive.org/details/newhandbookoflit0000miki|url-access=registration|year=2007|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, CT|isbn=9780300106367|page=[https://archive.org/details/newhandbookoflit0000miki/page/194 194]}}</ref> The guild associations are not, however, to be understood as the method of production for all towns. While the Chester pageants are associated with guilds, there is no indication that the N-Town plays are either associated with guilds or performed on [[pageant wagon]]s. Perhaps the most famous of the mystery plays, at least to modern readers and audiences, are those of Wakefield. Unfortunately, we cannot know whether the plays of the Towneley manuscript are actually the plays performed at Wakefield but a reference in the ''Second Shepherds' Play'' to [[Horbury|Horbery]] Shrogys <ref>[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-old?id=AnoTown&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/mideng-parsed&tag=public&part=13&division=div Anonymous. The Towneley plays] (line 454) {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020830231810/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-old?data=%2Flv1%2FArchive%2Fmideng-parsed&division=div&id=AnoTown&images=images%2Fmodeng&part=13&tag=public |date=30 August 2002 }}</ref> is strongly suggestive. In "The London Burial Grounds" by Mrs Basil Holmes (1897), the author claims that the Holy Priory Church, next to [[St Katherine Cree]] on Leadenhall Street, London was the location of miracle plays from the tenth to the sixteenth century. [[Edmund Bonner]], Bishop of London (c 1500 - 1569) stopped this in 1542.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.londoncemeteries.co.uk/?page=holmes |title=The London Burial Grounds: Notes on their History from the Earliest Times to the Present Day -Mrs. Basil Holmes (St Katherine Cree) |publisher=Londoncemeteries.co.uk |access-date=16 April 2012 |archive-date=11 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211192016/http://www.londoncemeteries.co.uk/?page=holmes |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Spanish mystery plays==

The oldest liturgical drama in Spain is from the 12th century and kept today in [[Toledo Cathedral]]. It is a play about the [[Biblical Magi]], three wise men from the East who followed a star and visited the baby Jesus in [[Bethlehem]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Liturgical drama: Definition from |url=http://www.answers.com/topic/liturgical-drama |access-date=16 April 2012 |publisher=Answers.com}}</ref> It is believed to have been based on an earlier play written in France.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Spanish Language and Literature}}</ref>

The [[Misteri d'Elx]] (in English, the [[Elx Mystery Play]] or [[Mystery Play of Elx]]) is a liturgical drama dating from the 13th century which has been enacted and celebrated every year without any known interruptions. Commemorating the Assumption of Mary, it is played on every 14 and 15 August in the Basilica de Santa María in the city of [[Elx]] (also known as [[Elche]]). The prohibition of theatrical plays in churches by the [[Council of Trent]] eventually threatened to interrupt the yearly performance of the Misteri, but in 1632 [[Pope Urban VIII]] issued a special permit for its continuation. In 2001, UNESCO declared it one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

==Miracle play==
Miracle plays, or Saint's plays, are now distinguished from mystery plays as they specifically re-enacted miraculous interventions by the [[saint]]s, particularly [[Saint Nicholas]] or [[St. Mary]], rather than biblical events.<ref>{{cite web |title=Miracle play |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/miracle-play |website=www.britannica.com |publisher=Britannica |access-date=15 November 2024 |language=en}}</ref> [[Robert Chambers (journalist)|Robert Chambers]], writing in the 19th century, notes that "especially in England, miracle [came] to stand for religious play in general".<ref>{{cite book|last=Chambers|first=Robert|title=Cyclopaedia of English Literature|publisher=Robert Chambers|location=Edinburgh, Scotland|year=1844|oclc=311881902}}, quoted in {{cite book|last=Clopper|first=Lawrence M.|title=Drama, play, and game: English festive culture in the medieval and early modern period|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2001|pages=69–70|isbn=978-0-226-11030-1}}</ref>

[[Cornish language]] miracle plays, particularly the ''[[Ordinalia]]'' trilogy, the ''[[Beunans Meriasek]]'', and the ''[[Bewnans Ke]]'', were traditionally performed at the [[plain-an-gwarry (theatre)|plain-an-gwarrys]].<ref name=SC>{{cite journal |author1=D. Simon Evans |title=The Story of Cornish |journal=[[Studies (journal)|Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review]] |date=Autumn 1969 |volume=58 |issue=231 |pages=293–308 |jstor=30087876 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30087876 |access-date=12 August 2021}}</ref> To capture the attention of the audience, "the plays were often noisy, bawdy and entertaining."<ref name=HC>[http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/a2m/medieval/plain_an_gwarry/st_just/st_just.htm ''St Just Plain-an-Gwarry''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120905113319/http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/a2m/medieval/plain_an_gwarry/st_just/st_just.htm |date=5 September 2012 }} Historic Cornwall. Retrieved 23 September 2012.</ref>

==Modern performances==
Attention to the Medieval Mystery plays began to grow during the early 1800s, after their reference and publication by [[William Hone]] and [[James Heywood Markland]]. Notably, poet Lord Byron wrote the plays [[Cain (play)|Cain]] and [[Heaven and Earth: A Mystery]] as modern version of medieval dramas on similar subjects. Mystery plays are produced regularly throughout the [[United Kingdom]]. The local cycles were revived in both [[York]] and [[Chester]] in 1951 as part of the [[Festival of Britain]], and are still performed by the local guilds.<ref>Rogerson, Margaret. [http://www.yorkmysteryplays.co.uk/the-plays-and-the-guilds/ The Plays and the Guilds] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151101125612/http://www.yorkmysteryplays.co.uk/the-plays-and-the-guilds/ |date=1 November 2015 }}, ''York Mystery Plays''</ref> The [[N-Town Plays|N-Town]] cycle was revived in 1978 as the [[Lincoln mystery plays]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Normington|first=Katie |title=Modern mysteries: contemporary productions of medieval English cycle dramas|publisher=Boydell and Brewer|location=Melton, Suffolk, England|date=October 2007|isbn=978-1-84384-128-9}}</ref> and in 1994 the [[Lichfield]] Mysteries were revived.<ref name="lichmyst">{{Citation| url = http://www.lichfieldmysteries.co.uk/| title = Lichfield Mysteries: Home Page| access-date = 28 January 2011| archive-date = 21 November 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101121100740/http://www.lichfieldmysteries.co.uk/| url-status = dead}}</ref>

In 1977 the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] commissioned [[Tony Harrison]] to create ''[[The Mysteries (play)|The Mysteries]]'', a re-working of the [[Wakefield Cycle]] and others.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dodsworth |first=Martin |date=2009-01-09 |title=A poet in the land of as if |url=http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/jan/09/the-mysteries-tony-harrison-adaptation |access-date=2022-12-23 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> It was again revived in 1985 (the production was filmed for [[Channel 4|Channel 4 Television]]), and as a part of the theatre's millennium celebration in 2000.<ref>{{cite book |last= Harrison |first=Tony |title=The Mysteries |url= https://archive.org/details/mysteries00harr |url-access= registration |year=1985 |publisher=Faber |location=London |isbn=0-571-13790-3 }}</ref> The productions won [[Bill Bryden]] the Best Director title in both the [[Evening Standard Theatre Awards#Best Director|1985 ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Awards]] and the [[1985 Laurence Olivier Awards]], the year the three plays first appeared together in performance at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum Theatre]].<ref>Shakespeare's Globe. [http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discovery-space/previous-productions/the-globe-mysteries The Globe Mysteries]. 2011</ref>

In 2001, the [[Isango Ensemble]] produced an African version of the Chester Cycle at the [[Garrick Theatre]] in London as ''The Mysteries – Yiimimangaliso'', performing in a combination of the [[Xhosa language]], [[Zulu language|Zulu]], English, Latin, and [[Afrikaans]]. They revived an adapted version of the production at Shakespeare's Globe in 2015 as ''The Mysteries''.<ref>Shakespeare's Globe. [http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/concerts-by-candlelight/isango-ensemble-mysteries The Isango Ensemble Mysteries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201183331/http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/concerts-by-candlelight/isango-ensemble-mysteries |date=1 December 2016 }} 2015</ref> In 2004, two mystery plays (one focusing on the Creation and the other on the Passion) were performed at Canterbury Cathedral, with actor [[Edward Woodward]] in the role of God. The large cast also included [[Daniel MacPherson]], [[Thomas James Longley]] and [[Joseph McManners]].<ref>BBC News. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3535002.stm Revival of Medieval Mystery Plays]. Thursday, 5 August 2004,</ref>

==See also==
*[[Biblical Magi]]
*[[Pedro Calderón de la Barca]]
*[[Chester Mystery Plays]]
*[[Easter Drama]]
*''[[The Great Theater of the World|El Gran Teatro del Mundo]]''
*[[Lincoln Mystery Plays]]
*[[Liturgical drama]]
*[[Medieval theatre]]
*''[[Mistero Buffo]]''
*[[Morality play]] - evolved from mystery plays
*[[Nativity play]]
*[[Passion play]]
*''[[The Subject of Tragedy]]'' by [[Catherine Belsey]] 
*[[Wakefield Mystery Plays]] - a collection of thirty-two mystery plays performed in medieval and early Renaissance England.
*[[York Mystery Plays]] - a collection of forty-eight mystery plays

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* Anderson Magalhães, ''Le'' Comédies bibliques ''di Margherita di Navarra, tra evangelismo e mistero medievale'', in ''La mujer: de los bastidores al proscenio en el teatro del siglo XVI'', ed. de I. Romera Pintor y J. L. Sirera, Valencia, Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2011, pp.&nbsp;171–201.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.lincolnmysteryplays.co.uk The Official Lincoln Mystery Plays Website]
* [http://www.chestermysteryplays.com The Official Chester Mystery Plays Website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050127094837/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed.html Records of Early English Drama (REED)] at Victoria University of the University of Toronto{{Dead link|date=November 2016}}
* [http://www.yorkmysteryplays.org/ The York Mystery plays]
* [http://www.yorkmysteryplays.co.uk/ 2002 and 2006 York Mystery Plays]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130505212531/http://lmp2012.co.uk/ 2012 Lincoln Mystery Plays]
* [http://jerz.setonhill.edu/resources/PSim/ A simulator of the progress of the pageants in the York Mystery plays]
* [http://www.lichfieldmysteries.co.uk/ The Lichfield Mysteries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121100740/http://www.lichfieldmysteries.co.uk/ |date=21 November 2010 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20020828171228/http://english.cua.edu/toronto/york98.htm The York Cycle as performed in Toronto in 1998]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070825073959/http://med-imag.english.cam.ac.uk/ Medieval Imaginations: literature and visual culture in the Middle Ages]
* [http://www.tewkesbury.town/tewkesbury-mummers-medieval-play/ Tewkesbury's Millennia of Mummers' Heritage kept alive - United Kingdom] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222044639/http://www.tewkesbury.town/tewkesbury-mummers-medieval-play/ |date=22 December 2019 }}
* Texts:
** The Towneley (Wakefield) Cycle in Middle English. Available from [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=header&idno=Towneley Michigan] or [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-old?id=AnoTown&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/mideng-parsed&tag=public&part=header Virginia]{{Dead link|date=November 2016}}
** The York Cycle in Middle English. Available from [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=header&idno=York Michigan] or [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-old?id=AnoYork&tag=public&amp;images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/mideng-parsed&part=0 Virginia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030210120619/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-old?id=AnoYork&tag=public&images=images%2Fmodeng&data=%2Flv1%2FArchive%2Fmideng-parsed&part=0 |date=10 February 2003 }}
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20050123091106/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/yorkplays/york.html The York cycle] modernised by Chester N. Scoville and Kimberley M. Yates{{Dead link|date=November 2016}}
** [http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ajohnsto/frntmt.html The n-Town cycle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090623044915/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ajohnsto/frntmt.html |date=23 June 2009 }} modernised by Stanley J. Kahrl and Alexandra F. Johnston
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20090307100354/http://www.umm.maine.edu/faculty/necastro/drama/chester/index.asp The Chester Cycle] in middle English
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Miracle Plays and Mysteries}}

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